Census Bureau To Test How Citizenship Question Affects 2020 Census ResponsesThe bureau wants to know if it should hire more workers and adapt marketing for the 2020 national head count because of any negative impact from a citizenship question.

Newly sworn-in U.S. citizens stand during a naturalization ceremony in Alexandria, Va., in August. The Census Bureau is planning to test how a question about U.S. citizenship status the Trump administration added will affect responses to the 2020 census.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Claire Harbage/NPR

Newly sworn-in U.S. citizens stand during a naturalization ceremony in Alexandria, Va., in August. The Census Bureau is planning to test how a question about U.S. citizenship status the Trump administration added will affect responses to the 2020 census.

Beginning in June 2019, about 480,000 households are expected to receive one of two test questionnaires similar to the form the bureau is planning to use in 2020. Some of the forms used in the test will include the question, "Is this person a citizen of the United States?"

The bureau expects to receive results by fall 2019.That'sjust months before the head count is expected to begin in January 2020 in rural Alaska before rolling out to the rest of the country starting in March of that year. Officials say they are trying to figure out whether the agency needs to hire more door knockers to visit households that don't respond and adapt its marketing campaign for the census because of any negative impact from the citizenship question.

The announcement comes at a precarious period in preparations for the constitutionally-required head count of every person living in the U.S. The Trump administration is facing a total of seven lawsuits over its addition of a citizenship question that dozens of states, cities and other groups fear will undermine the accuracy of the information collected for the census.

The population count will be used to determine the distribution of congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states through 2030, and how an estimated $800 billion a year in federal funds are allocated for Medicare, local schools, roads and other public institutions and services.

During Thursday's meeting at the bureau's headquarters in Suitland, Md., Jarmin noted that the agency has "pretty limited reliable evidence of what the impact of the question will be on self-response rates."

Plans for a potential test of the citizenship question in the summer of 2019 were first announced publicly in November during the trial for the lawsuits in New York. The bureau's announcement on Thursday confirming the test is not expected to affect the final district court ruling for the New York-based lawsuits, which U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has said he plans to release in the next few weeks. Furman said in court that in forming his opinion, he is focusing on any testing of the citizenship question conducted before Ross announced his decision in March to add the question.